I would hasten to point out, this has not ever been a book for Marvel that immediately implies "hit" in absence of its creative teams. However, Secret War did well. And I expect SI will, so I think this is all matter of Marvel's current strong marketing department tied with its current group of writers-masterminds.

This weeks definite pull list:Anna Mercury #1Secret Invasion #1Kick Ass #2Buffy #13Giant Size Astonishing X-Men #1 (Unless this has been delayed again, of course)Young X-Men #1 (I'll give it a try, but don't really have high hopes)Young Avengers Presents: Wiccan & Speed (I read the preview, and the writing is some of the most realistic teenage couple dialogue I have ever read...and its a gay couple! Seriously, someone at Marvel is making gay characters look like normal people, so this is a must read I think)

I'll probably pick up more in the end, but I'm trying to be restrained. It won't last.

So many nice comics. And as usual, I'm going to have to wait one painful week before they hit the shelves here in Denmark. Of course, technically I still get them once a month, just like everyone else, but that week of knowing they're out there, and I can't read them, is a killer.

With the bad week (month, year, ever) the fanboys are having this is the time for the WC geek-sh crowd, myself and yourself included, to be doubly careful to not be like them. Enjoy the work, if the work is not ready yet, enjoy some other thing instead, and so on.

Looking at my DCBS order I seem to have some X stuff on the week too. Trying the first issue of Young X-men to see if I enjoy it as much as I did the New X-men trades despite the change from Kyle/Yost to Marc Guggenheim. For some reason I always feel compelled to support a lawyer who has become a comic writer (and yes I am aware of the controversy surrounding him and I don't think its relevant here).

it is quite unanimous that the Iron Man character can not support the sales of two ongoing series

It was an exaggeration, and one based solely on Newarama message board comments...

...so, as you can see, my usage of the word "unanimous" was wholly warranted.

One of these things is not like the other.

If The Beat says an issue of IRON MAN is doing 36.6K, you can assume it's actually doing at least 40. It's spiked as high as 85K in the last 12 months, and with the movie and the next Marvel uberplot machinations, it is in fact safer to assume that there will be further sales spikes on the book over the next twelve months. More sales spikes, in fact, than were found on PUNISHER when that became a two-book property -- both of which seem to survive handily.

Nick Fury, on the other hand, has never sustained remarkable sales or an ongoing series for any notable length of time since Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. (SHIELD ran forty-odd issues from 89-92 approx, but forty-odd issue runs weren't notable back then. Fucking SLEEPWALKER ran 33 issues...) One reason why people felt they could get away with outright killing the character in the mid/late 90s.

Controversy? I wasn't aware of any? I just haven't liked the look of his choice of team, in particular that Blindfol has been made standard superheoine hottie fare now.

As for trying to not be like the rabid fanboys...I think with X-Men and the X-related books on a whole, I think I get a little over-protective. They were the first comics I really got into (which was around the same time as Warren's run on Excalibur btw, still some of my favourite comics of all time (and I know have an urge to pull them out of storage and read again lol)) and they were there for me during a difficult time. An odd phrase to be sure, as how can a comic 'be there for you'?

But as a young gay man coming out, I saw the parallels between the situation of the mutants, and my own. And the stories meant a lot and were comforting to me as a result. It's why now I get overly protective over certain characters and hate when someone just doesn't get the X-Men.

This all sounds gloriously geeky and painfully embarassing, but I dunno, made that personal connection at a young age and its the one book I get rabidly fanboyish over. Which is why I'm glad they have great writers on the books atm or coming up.

Though I would love to write them myself, and I thankfully have friends who tell me when my scripts become too fanboyish lol.

Anyway, I am once again deviating a thread, so I'll finish by saying I'll also be picking up Action Comics #863 as Geoff Johns is the only person who can make me give a crap about Superman (okay, Morrison too, when he releases something) and hunting for The Killing Joke Deluxe Edition, as it looks stunning. And wondering why DC haven't been releasing many books I'm interested in lately.

This all sounds gloriously geeky and painfully embarassing, but I dunno, made that personal connection at a young age and its the one book I get rabidly fanboyish over. Which is why I'm glad they have great writers on the books atm or coming up.

I think many people have books, characters, movies that impacted and spoke to them. I would just contend, and this may be unfair to presume, it was the strength of writers like Warren on Excalibur that spoke to you. Like you said, its the great creators which make it work. And keeping that in mind is always key.

I would just contend, and this may be unfair to presume, it was the strength of writers like Warren on Excalibur that spoke to you. Like you said, its the great creators which make it work.

I would have to agree. When I look back at that time, I realise that some of my favourite writers and artists were working on the comic books at the time. In my head, the connection is still as much with the characters as the writers, but obviously if I hadn't found the characters voices so compelling, there would never have been that connection at all.